Memo #15 August 1, 2001 (blogged December1, 2013)
To: All Pratt Adults and Selected Others
From: Dad, Grandpa etc. Richard Marden Pratt
Re: The Roles of Jesus Christ in our Salvation
Yes, I know that in memo 14 I
promised that memo 15 would be the beginning of a dissertation on the second
Coming of Jesus Christ. But much meditation has convinced me that to better
understand the Second Coming we need to understand the major roles of Jesus in
our individual Salvation and hopefully Exaltation.
Those roles are four in number...1.)
AS our Creator, 2) Our Savior, 3) Our Redeemer, and 4) Our Judge. These
titles, without elaboration, suggest that we wouldn’t even BE without HIM. In
short, everything about us even our very flesh and the breath we breathe
several times a minute is all due to HIM. Or as the prophet Mosiah said,
“...If
you should render all the thanks and praise which your whole soul has power to
possess, to that God who has created you, and has kept and preserved
you, and has caused that ye should rejoice....
I say unto you that if ye should
serve him who has created you from the beginning, and is preserving you from
day to day, by lending you breath, that ye may live and move and do
according to your own will, and even supporting you from one moment to
another—I say, if ye should serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be
unprofitable servants.
And behold, all that he requires of
you is to keep his commandments; and he has promised you that if
ye would keep his commandments ye should prosper in the land; and he never doth
vary from that which he hath said; therefore, if ye do keep his commandments he
doth bless you and prosper you.....Ye cannot say that ye are even as much as
the dust of the earth; yet ye were created of the dust of the earth; but
behold, it belongeth to him who created you.” Mosiah 2:20-24
In my 14th year I had an
experience that all ought to have for it taught me to appreciate a Savior. In a
swimming accident I was sucked out into the mighty Columbia River into an eddy
or whirlpool, one so powerful that no person, even the strongest swimmer,
couldn’t survive. Without hesitation two men dove into the water and swam to my
rescue, my Dad and my Uncle Lawrence Folsom. Neither were strong swimmers and
both said afterwards that they knew they could not rescue me but they would not
let me die alone. Through a series of mighty miracles we all survived.
My Aunt Daisy begged four or five
strong men on shore to do something. They very curtly told her we were goners
and they didn’t intend to lose their lives hopelessly. Then she spied a large
drift wood tree intact with branches, partly imbedded in the sand. She pleaded
with them to help her launch it. They told her how silly she was for we were
now a hundred feet or more off shore and being swept rapidly down stream.
Miracle #1; Unaided by human
hands that small woman pulled that several ton tree free from the sand and
pushed it into the river.
Miracle #2; As tho propelled
by a motor and guided by a helmsman, that tree shot right out to and alongside
the three of us. By this time I was unconscious and the two men, taking turns
holding me up, were exhausted. They managed to push my body upon the tree trunk
between some limbs but, too weak to climb up, they just hung on. But now we
were accelerating down the river at a rapid rate, to the falls which would
surely finish us off, tree or no tree.
Miracle #3; Aunt Daisy spied
a small row boat, which had not been there before. She again appealed to the me
for one or two of them to get in the boat and save us from the falls. Again a
flat “NO” for the falls would claim them all.
Miracle #4; Two boys in
their early teens came along, heard her pleadings, saw us disappearing down
stream, leaped into the boat, (neither had ever rowed a boat before) and sped
to our rescue. Dad and my uncle transferred my body from the tree into the boat
and then hanging onto the boat themselves, the two boys were able to reach
shore just short of the fatal rapids.
The feelings I have for those four
( I knew the boys), but especially for my Dad and Uncle, is impossible to
describe for the English language is not sufficient to do so. And over the
years this feeling continues to increase. I LOVED them true. But the
feelings cannot be described by such a weak word. A better description is
“Awesome Wonder” that they offered their lives that I might have a few more
years of mortality. And if they could come to me now and request me to do
something, I would do it. Because these past 70 years that they have given me
is worth anything they might ask me to do.
Now Jesus is offering us
Everlasting Life just as our Creator. For as the scriptures say He has
created all things, both the Heavens and the Earth and everything that in them
is. In other words, under the direction of God our Father, Jesus is the
Superintendent of Construction. He, Jesus the Creator, is saving us from the
“rapids” which is Death. ~ He is offering to redeem us from our mistakes
(called sins). A redeemer is someone who pays the debts for someone who can’t
pay them. The Father says that every sin has a price, and His Law of Justice
decrees that the price must be paid by all, equally and alike. There will be no
favorites.
But Jesus, by prearrangement with
the Father, can exercise the Law of Mercy...which is where someone else can pay
for the sins of each of us providing we meet certain conditions. Jesus is
the only person who has the power to pay the price. He received that
power by completely complying with all that His Father asked Him to do. He
literally paid for our sins with His blood and His sufferings in the Garden
of Gethsemane and on that awful cross. Yes, I stand in “Awesome wonder”
that He did this for me and in turn I joyfully will do all things that He asks
me to do. What a tiny price to pay for eternal life, eternal family, eternal
love and happiness.
And finally, He will be our judge.
In order for His Mercy to pay the claim of God’s Justice, each one of us must
stand at the judgement bar of God and give an accounting of our mortal lives
and each one of us will be judged equally and alike. If we meet the
conditions of mercy, which is OBEDIENCE to God’s laws, Jesus will pay for our
sins. If not, then we must pay for them personally which is to suffer
as He suffered, which suffering is so terrible that Jesus says only those who
experience it can know how terrible it is. No right thinking person would ever
want to experience it.
Ignorance will not be an acceptable
excuse. For the Gospel is sounding in every ear both on earth and in the world
of spirits. The books will be opened; our Book of Life will be opened and we
will find that we had every opportunity to hear, to read, to think and to accept!
And if our judgement is to be suffering we will weep and our Savior will
weep for us and with us.
Yes, I stand in Awesome
wonder that three men offered their lives for mine. the first two for just a
few short years of mortality, but the last one, even Jesus Christ, has offered
me all that the Father has to give. How can I turn such an offer down, I can
not and I will not! And I invite you, my loved ones, to follow me as I follow
Our Savior, My Savior Jesus Christ into the fullness of Everlasting Life and
JOY!
I love you,
Dad, grandpa, etc. Richard Marden
Pratt
PS. Thursday Feb. 25th
journal entry:
Following are some thoughts I have had on Faith lately.
1. Faith must be based on truth or it has no power.
2. Faith is the assurance of existing truth not perceivable
by the five mortal senses.
3. Without knowledge of the true and living God there could
be no faith, therefore an individual’s faith is in direct ratio to his
knowledge of the true and living God.
4. Without faith in the true and living God it is impossible
to please Him. (Hebrews 11:6)
5. Faith is acquired by accepting unseen truth, nothing
doubting, and then acting as though it was already a reality at the same time
continuing to acquire more knowledge and petitioning the source of all truth in
prayer.
6. Finally, Faith is dreams of proven but unseen realities,
and we so live as to make our dreams come true because they are supported by
proven substance not visible or delectable to the mortal powers.
Quotable Family Quotes
I Can’t a poor pale puny imp too lazy to work and
from all duties does shirk!
I Can a giant, unbending he stands. And he can
conquer who thinks he can, in spite of the throngs that doubt him! Often quoted by Richard’s Grandpa
Peterson
